Random Review: We Met In Dreams by Rowan McAllister #Review #Giveaway

In Victorian London,
during a prolonged and pernicious fog, fantasy and reality are about to
collide—at least in one man’s troubled mind.

A childhood fever
left Arthur Middleton, Viscount Campden, seeing and hearing things no
one else does, afraid of the world outside, and unable to function as a
true peer of the realm. To protect him from himself—and to protect
others from him—he spends his days heavily medicated and locked in his
rooms, and his nights in darkness and solitude, tormented by visions,
until a stranger appears.

This apparition is different. Fox says
he’s a thief and not an entirely good sort of man, yet he returns night
after night to ease Arthur’s loneliness without asking for anything in
return. Fox might be the key that sets Arthur free, or he might deliver
the final blow to Arthur’s tenuous grasp on sanity. Either way, real or
imaginary, Arthur needs him too much to care.

Fox is only one of
the many secrets and specters haunting Campden House, and Arthur will
have to face them all in order to live the life of his dreams.

I am a lover of historical romance and Rowan McAllister hit the nail on
the head with this one. With every word written, Rowan brought life to a world
that I will soon not forget and one that I was sad to leave. There was so much
to this story it’s almost hard to put into words.

The entire story was told from Arthur’s point of view, which made
this story in my opinion, because it was centered around him. Although, getting
into Fox’s head would've been great. I never felt the story less than, because I
didn’t get it. There was an intensity to this story, it wasn’t dark, but it had
this heavy darkness that just hovered at the edges, bringing down the
light-hearted parts by just enough to keep you on the edge of your seat.

The mystery around Arthur's illness at the end was unique. The author
gave us the answer, but left it open to our own interpretation without making
it feel as though we didn’t have all the answers. The ending in the romance was
more HFN, since we don’t know what the two main characters will do to make
their relationship work in a time period that being gay was criminal. Watching
Fox and Arthur’s romance was nothing like any story I've ever read. Arthur’s
illness made it so when Fox first showed up, he thought he was one of his
apparitions, but one unlike all the others. There was safety in that for him
because people made him nervous, so if Fox wasn’t real he could be himself.

Being in Arthur’s mind while he dealt with his illness and his thoughts
about himself, or what others thought of him, was fascinating. I am a firm
believer in having more stories about mental illness, and this one was one that
will live in my mind for a very long time.

Arthur went through so much growth in this story I was at any given time
cheering for him and fearing for him. Was there a bad guy? And if so, then who
was it? I was never sure of Pendel, the butler or Oscar, his Uncle, even Fox
had points had me worrying that I was so lost in the romance that I was missing
something about him. I loved Arthur, and I loved Fox for him. The romance is
what balanced the story for me. The fun and laughter and honesty that Fox
brought out in Arthur was beautiful. The heat level is low but it was perfect
for the innocent that Arthur was and the care that Fox had for him.